Harbringer
by Aglaranna
Summary: Plauged by dark dreams, Umi returns to Cephiro, but nothing is the same. War is brewing, and old bonds have been broken.  Can they be reforged?  While a new love grows, the enemy plans it's next step, guarded by a familiar face.
1. Prologue

Prologue-

He lay in darkness, in quiet sleep, dreaming, watching. The universe swirled, souls glimmering like bright stars around his slumbering body. He could feel the worlds all around him, the defining presence of the Creator, bouncing from one to the other. An even brighter light, he felt him settle on a small world. Peaking his interest, the Creator resting in one small dimension. Leaving the other creation, the interesting one, the chaos filled planet…Earth. He watched. A second, a minute, a thousand years passed while he lay in the black silence, amid the myriad of tiny soul stars, watching one small world. Captivated. He watched. The universe twisted, streaking in endless blackness around him, screams and death willowed calls, rippling dimensions. He watched. Interest drawn upon the small planet of Cephiro, he learned. He grew. Love, grief, death, the souls falling to him, he discovered. Feelings. Questions. He watched a young girl, from behind a black veil. A girl of endless beauty, a tiny child of unknown years, who wore an emerald crown, he remembered. Her name. Emeraude. Love is pain. Death eternal. What is death? He watched a man, in the darkness of the shadows. A man tall and handsome. A man of beloved life. A man with a wish. He watched and remembered. Zagato. Love is forever in death. Life is the cycle to death. Love is a question. What is love? He watched three girls. He knew their screams. He touched their hearts. He remembered their journey. Hikaru. Umi. Fuu. Legendary. Magic. Knights. He felt their pulsating sadness, their endless scream. One wish. Death, death, death. Love only in death. Why? It's not true. Why? Love only death. Only death. Death. Love him. One scream, woken reverie, he watched. Followed them to Earth. Followed them to Cephiro. Drank their pain. He laughed, the fool Debonair. He laughed upon her wish, her belief, her claim upon Death. Nothingness. Nothingness to him, emptiness, life. He laughed and relished in her death. Die. He watched, drank upon the fear of Cephiro, drank upon terror. One scream. Woken to one scream. Pillar. Death. Life. Rebirth. Pain. Grief. He wanted it all. He wanted nothing. War. God. God. War. He slept no longer. His dimension. His banishment. Gone. Souls glittered in ebony twilight. He was coming. Cephiro his own, his one, his only. Memory.

He stood, asleep no longer. He wanted them. It. All. He stretched his hand, and called. Live.

Come to him.


	2. Chapter One

Chapter One- A New Face, an Old Place

A lone figure stood on the observation deck of Tokyo Tower, bathed in the fading sunlight. Shading her dark sapphire eyes, she stared into the sun. Her entire body glowed, for a moment her skin was burnished bronze, then it passed, the sun sinking below the western horizon. Gone to sleep again. The figure, a woman in her early twenties, with a lean youthful face, with eyes dark and somber, stood slouched as if carrying a heavy burden. Her fingers grappled with the cold iron bars beneath her hands. How long had it been? She wondered. Her eyes peered into the fading sky, and in the rising dark, she seemed to be looking for something. Six years. Six long years. She sighed, and looked away. They were gone. She should have gone. She knew that now. When the portal closed. Running fingers through strands of light blue hair, once sleek and glossy, cared for with pride, now…dull like her eyes. Mostly, she kept it tied in a messy bun, half her hair escaping. She didn't care. Nothing kept her here, and yet she stayed. She couldn't go back. She missed them. Umi and Fuu, she missed them terribly, all her friends. With everything that happened, life felt so empty. "I should have gone, when I had the chance." She said, sighing, and leaned back against the rail. "This is where it happened. So long ago…it feels like a dream. I…don't know now/" The vaunted Magic Knight of Water, strong and fiery. Beautiful. What was beautiful about her now? She barely had the strength to face the day. She drifted, like flotsam and jetsam on the ocean. School here, University, she maintained a decent average. She barely slept now, and it showed, dark shadows hung beneath her sunken eyes framing a pale face, one all to thin. She didn't eat much either. It was too painful. "Painful." She whispered. All those memories, she tried to forget. Cephiro. There was nothing here.

"Your back here again."

Umi glanced up, meeting the dark emerald eyes of her roommate. Wiping away a single tear, she smiled. "Yes, I like coming here."

Patting her back, the other young woman frowned. Brushing black bangs out of gaze, she leaned against the rail. "It's the only place you cry." The last rays of the sun slipped across her cheeks, turning her hair as blue as Umi's own. Short hair, cropped around her shoulders, the shape reminded Umi of Hikaru. But not the color. "I mean; you always look on the verge of tears Umi. But this is the only place you cry."

Surprised, Umi's weary eyes found themselves caught in her friend's hot gaze. "You…"

"You can't fool me, Umi." She glanced down at the ground. "I just wish you'd talk to me. Maybe I can help you." Scuffing her booted foot on the ground, she sighed. "I saw you after your parents deaths. Cancer, wasn't it?"

"Mother…"

"And a drunken driver."

"Father." She whispered, another tear slipping down her cheek. 'Mother's thin and worn frame was more than enough…but Dad's mangled body…' He lost his will to live after her mother…Acid rose in her gorge. Red spattered across her thoughts, dripping across her consciousness, trickling into the corners of her mind. Bright, ruby, red. She clenched her fist, nails digging into her palm. Blood drained between her fingers.

"I'm sorry."

"You…you don't have anything to be sorry for Rin."

"I shouldn't make you relive it, it's hard enough." Rin put her hand over her friend's. "I don't like seeing you torture yourself. Stop Umi." Sharply, she yanked Umi's fingers out of her palm. "It's not good. Let's go back to the dorm, you need to rest."

"I can't rest, Rin. I don't want to sleep." Umi smiled wearily at her friend. "Thank you for your concern, but I'm fine. I'm fine Rin. I just don't want to sleep."

"I don't want to either. But if this is about Johnny, I'll beat his bloody brains out. I told you…he wasn't any good…" Rin glanced away furiously. "If any of those bastards come at you again, Umi…" She sighed. "You're better than that, you deserve better than that."

"Rin…" Umi looked back towards the fading sun. Dipping into the bloody clouds, cold red. It spread across the entire sky. The clouds, the shadows, her heart, and her soul. 'If only…it's not about that…or them.' She didn't have the will to say no any longer. There wasn't a reason to. There wasn't anything to live for. 'Hikaru, Fuu…Clef.' She touched her heart. 'Cephiro.' This pain, there was nothing left in her heart, except this pain, and the desire to return.

"You're thinking about that dream aren't you?" Rin said, her voice soft. "That nightmare."

Rin had been her roommate throughout her stay at the University. Its name didn't really matter, she'd let her parents pick the school. Her parents… Of the five girls that had shared their pod her first year, Rin had been the only one who made a continual effort to get to know her. She'd cut through the layers of depression like a sunbeam through a fog bank, and she'd seen Umi as a worthwhile human being. Umi looked at her friend, the other young woman had always been perceptive. She slept as little as Umi did, and until some time ago, she'd never said why. "Yes." The recurring nightmare, they shared it. Though Rin didn't know what it meant, and Umi never had the courage to tell her about Cephiro.

"Althein…ether..Harbringer…" Words barely more than a whisper, they caught in Umi's ear. The same words echoed in her own dream, one of swords, blood, and Cephiro. "You always seem to know more about it than I do." Rin said. She turned, staring up into the sun. "About that dark presence that lingers, and reaches for me." Shuddering, Rin turned away.

'Cephiro.' Umi thought, hand squeezing on her chest. She'd never had the courage to talk to Rin about Cephiro. She didn't want to turn her friend away. 'She'd think I was crazy.' Rin was a great deal like Hikaru, persistent and devoted, fierce like a wolf. She stood by Umi, even when the world crashed against her like a tsunami wave. Rin was so like Hikaru. Except…her periods of seriousness, her lonely wandering, her eternal suspiciousness to strangers, but she always sought the good in people. And when she decided to be your friend, she'd follow you into hell and back. Umi smiled, a pang in her chest, she was so like Hikaru. "You wouldn't believe me."

"Try me." She crossed her arms across her chest, peering at Umi. "I don't know…but that presence is very real." Rin looked back, watching the sun dip under the horizon, and the world fading to black. "I want to know."

"You don't."

"I do." Rin looked at her. "I do. I want to know…that darkness."

'There isn't anything we can do about it." Umi said. Sadly, she leaned on the cold rail. "Nothing." 'They're on their own…if it's even real.'

"Why?"

"Because it's far from here."

"So you do know!"

Scuffing her foot on the floor, Umi tried not to look guilty. "There isn't anything we can do." 'I wasn't supposed to let that slip.' She thought. 'So tired, that's probably why.' "We can't go there, Rin. We can't."

"But…it's so terrible Umi. That place…it's going to be torn apart!"

"I KNOW!" The words ripped from her throat, echoing around the deserted platform. A tourist glanced up and stared at them, ignoring him, she repeated. "I know."

"What's wrong?" Rin stared at her, analyzing her. "I…it's been a growing thing Umi. The dreams have gotten worse. I see him, every night. More than you, I think. He reaches for me, and calls your name, their names. This name…" Eyes falling to the ground, Rin sighed, slumping forward. "Cephiro."

The word, uttered by an alien voice, stopped Umi's heart for a moment, her blood ran cold. She stood paralyzed. "You…know…"

"I…I don't know if it's you or me, Umi. I don't know, and frankly I don't care. I just…I want to go there. That pain, it's so real, it's so harsh, and I feel…connected. Like the lines of my own past blend into that darkness, and the curtains fall back, my memory…just beyond the wall."

"Rin." Umi touched her shoulder. "We can't go there."

"Do you want to?"

"That doesn't matter! The portal is closed!" Shocked, Umi's hand flew across her mouth. 'How much more am I going to give away?' She glanced across at Rin, who was staring down at her own hands.

A strange look fell across Rin's eyes. "But do you want to? Do you want to go there…this place we see in our dreams?" Her hands closed, and Umi thought she saw a faint flicker around them, out of the corner of her eye. A tiny white flame. "Do you want to go Umi?"

"I…" Umi stuttered. 'Do I want to see Hikaru, Fuu, and the others again…even after that dreadful argument. We were all so angry.' Closing her eyes she remembered.

"Don't you want to go back to Cephiro Umi?" Hikaru demanded, as they stood together in a circle on the platform. "Don't you want to see all our friends again!"

"You know I do Hikaru. It's just…" Umi sighed. "I don't want to leave my parents, my mother is sick Hikaru."

"We know you can't abandon her Umi." Fuu smiled, patting her hand. "We don't want to lose you. It will be alright." There was a sadness on Fuu's countenance, one unusual for one so happy. She knew, she knew that Umi wouldn't come.

"This is your last chance Umi. Clef said the portal would be collapsing soon, if you don't come…we'll..." She didn't finish her sentence; instead she grasped Umi's hand. "Please Umi. You've just got to come! Everyone's waiting for you. Presea, Lafarga, Caldina, and Clef! Think of how heart broken they'll be if you don't come!"

"Think of how heart broken my father will be if I do." Umi held onto Hikaru's hand for a few seconds longer. "I can't go Hikaru."

"You have to!" Hikaru yelled, her dark red eyes pleading. "Think of all the people you love! The people of Cephiro!"

"Go!" Umi snapped. "The people I love are here! I'm never going to go back to Cephiro Hikaru! I'm needed here! I'll never go back!"

"Oh…o-okay…let's go Fuu." Umi turned away, unable to stare at Hikaru's crestfallen face, the anger in her eyes as she grabbed Fuu's hand, and they vanished in a blaze of light.

Hikaru's face floated before her eyes, her angry eyes, her saddened gaze. Guilt welled up in Umi, like it had a thousand times before. 'Oh Hikaru! I'm so sorry. I wish I could take it back. Take back that promise! I know how much it hurt you, I know. I'm sorry I couldn't go. I can now, I want to. I do, Hikaru! I do. I want to go.' "I want to." Umi glanced up at Rin. "I do." She reached out. "I want to go, I have to."

"I know." Rin said. "I know you do." Rin took her hand, and patted it. "This world, Cephiro…it calls me, and it calls you. Even though I've never been there…I'd…I'd like to see it."

"Rin…"

"Hmm?"

"You're…I mean…memory?"

"Nothing." She smiled, and looked out, watching as stars twinkled to life. "Let's go."

"Where?"

Squeezing her hand, Rin laughed. "To Cephiro!" Light flashed up around them, bright and blazing, hot white light. It burned across their flesh, as it tore through the fabric of the worlds. Yanked apart by the seams, Umi heard only her own scream, as the floor beneath them cracked like glass, and they plummeted towards the center of the bright hot light. It engulfed her. She knew no more.


End file.
